Energy Efficiency

Mission: Provide residents and businesses with information on energy efficiencies in new and existing buildings in order to save money & reduce dependence on non-renewable energy sources.  Goals:


Educate people on how to integrate energy efficient upgrades and renovations in existing structures;
  • Provide information on energy/cost saving practices. Actions - Introduction of Elevate Energy programs to residents
  • Encourage the city & schools to cut fossil fuel energy use in their buildings to quickly decrease greenhouse gas emissions.  EESP confirmed support for Energy Benchmarking in  Public & Multi Unit Buildings 
  • Promote the development of local businesses & services in the community & encourage local walking, local shopping; EESP collaboration with Chambers of Commerce & Public Officials on GoEdgewater local community tours
  • Work with developers & public officials to encourage building  LEED certified developments. (collaborate with Planning & Development); EESP Guidelines published. Plus volunteers do ongoing consulting work with public officials
  • Work with non profit groups, government and lending institutions to create pools and funding vehicles for residents and businesses to implement energy efficient changes.  Voted support for State's Clean Jobs Bill which was passed.​ 
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                                                                    Heat Pumps   
                                                        Dr. Thomas J. Murphy, 2020

Think of water, it spontaneously flows from a high point to a low point, releasing energy (this energy can be captured with a turbine and used to generate electricity–hydro power).  To get water up-hill, you have to use energy, you have to pump it.  
  Heat is the same.  It spontaneously flows from a high temperature area to a low temperature one, warming it up.  To get something that is cold to a higher temperature you have to pump it up to the higher temperature, you have to add energy.  This is what a heat pump does.  The two common examples are refrigerators which take heat from the cold and pump it out, making the inside colder.  And an air conditioner pumps heat from the inside to the warmer outside, making it cooler inside.

Many motels use heat pumps to heat and cool individual units.  Typically they are beneath the window and look (and operate in the summertime) just like an air conditioner pumping heat from the inside to the outside.  In the wintertime. however, with the push of a button, the flows are reversed, and heat is pumped from the outside to the inside: 
The advantage of a heat pump is that it takes much less energy to pump heat rather than to generate it by burning a fossil fuel.  Its efficiency, its coefficient of performance (COP) is typically ≈5 for moderate temperature changes.  This means that you can pump 5 units of energy (heat) using one unit of energy (electricity).  Compare this to a toaster which generates one unit of energy (heat) for each unit of energy (electricity).  

A downside today is that most of our electricity is made by using a heat source (coal, natural gas, or nuclear) where it takes three units of energy (to make one unit of energy (electricity).  Thus, the COP of a heat pump using electricity today is only about 1.66 (5/3).  This changes to 5.0 (5/1) if the electricity is produced from solar cells.  An advantage of using heat pumps for heating and cooling is that you no longer need a furnace.  

Heat pumps are integral to geothermal energy systems.  Geothermal systems use the earth as a heat ‘battery’.  You put it in during the summer and take it out in the winter. The image shows a typical late winter day from the geothermal wells at Loyola’s IEC building–water from the wells is 45.8° and after some heat is removed (heat pump), the water goes back at 41.8°.  During summer the two temperatures can be 77° for water from the ground and 87° for the water being returned, along with heat removed by air conditioners from the building to be stored until it is needed in the winter. 
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Elevate Energy provides free energy evaluations for homeowners & businesses. To access details on their services go to:
 http://www.elevateenergy.org/  

In addition, Elevate Energy recently published research reports. The following include links for reference and as a resource as all of us consider issues relating to energy and sustainability in our communities. 
  • Chicago Energy Insecurity factsheet: Nearly 90 percent of lower-income homeowners in Chicago report being energy insecure, or being without access to affordable and reliable energy sources to heat and power their homes.
  • Chicago Energy Insecurity Report: Energy Insecurity Among Chicago Homeowners: A Picture of Families Struggling to Keep Up --- This white paper details the results of a survey and qualitative interviews with lower-income Chicago homeowners.
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Energy Efficiency Team
Tom Murphy                                                                           <tjm2040@rcn.com>
Jim Nelson
Brian Haag
Renee Patten
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​ Greenhouse Gas/Carbon Offsetting: Renee Patten, EESP Project Lead. shared details that she learned at the Global Congress for Climate Change & Sustainability Professionals. In addition she information on carbon offsetting and the individual actions individuals can take to offset personal and household emissions: 
     1) CMAP's (Chicago Metropolitan Agency of Planning) 2015 greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory 
69% of the region's GHG emissions are from energy use (38% of that is from residences, 34% is commercial and the rest is industry). Then 29% of the GHG emissions regionally are from transportation uses. 84% of those transportation emissions are from "on-road" - emissions coming out of tailpipes. Lastly, waste emissions account for 3% (such as emissions from landfills)
     2) The Greenest Region Compact (GRC): promotes sustainability in Chicago communities across the region. To date, 128 communities have adopted the GRC to improve quality of life for more than 6 million residents. The GRC Framework is the companion document that provides objectives, strategies, and tools to help communities address goals of the GRC. It cover's climate, land use, energy, water, waste & recycling and more.
B) Personal carbon offsetting. 
     1) A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for emissions made elsewhere. You can offset plane travel, events, household or office emissions. You can also pay a monthly to offset the emissions from your household. Two legitimate sources are Terrapass and Carbon Fund.  Carbon Fund says, “reduce what you can, offset what you can’t.”
      2) For carbon offsetting, you participate in a voluntary market, purchasing carbon offsets to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from event operations. Offsets support projects that reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Project types can include renewable energy, energy efficiency, fishery, and forestry projects.
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